good lord, no! i’d never EVAH do this. i did have a dry cut the other week. i don’t know if it’s common in the us, but here it’s never ever done (as far as i know). a japanese friend did it. :-)

Dry cuts aren’t that common in the US either for a lot of salons! I’ve heard both good and bad things about it depending on type of hair (supposedly esp. good if you have very heavy or curly hair, because wetting the hair weighs it down too much and too much can be cut off).

Sam, I cut my own hair but I am not sure if I am the right person to give you tips based on your hair type and what you are saying you want. I keep my hair pretty shaggy, which is really easy to do yourself. Blunt cut or straight, not so much. Do you have a friend who can help you out at all with it?

When I had really long hair and struggled to justify spending outrageous amounts of $$$ for trims, I invested in a good pair of hair scissors and just had steady-handed friends do the trimming. That worked out pretty well.

I have a more elaborate hair cut now but I still cut my own bangs. It’s frankly pretty obvious when I do this and my beloved stylist gives me a little shit for it but I don’t care. If she wanted me to get my hair cut professionally more often, she shouldn’t charge $60!

Sephora sells decent hair scissors, btw.

I don’t have friends. :( (not entirely true but probably not worth the effort to try and coerce people into doing this.) G. has helped once but he was terrified of messing up and in the end, not very good. I do cut my own bangs but it’s meh. I guess I bring it sections over my shoulder, try to cut equal amounts then look at it backwards in the mirror, repeat. maybe I’ll end up with your hairstyle ally. .

Haha accept my apologies in advance if you do!!

This reminds me, I desperately need to at least trim up my bangs.

i’m not allowed to do this anymore :(

did you end up with a bald spot kit?

i have been cutting my hair off and on for a while. but it is also pretty shaggy. you really just need someone to do a straight cut in the back, which should only take like 2 minutes. you can have them use tape to make a straight line and have them cut underneath. and then you yourself can bend slightly at the waist, brush the hair over the top of your head and cut into your hair vertically in small snips to get rid of any bluntness that might make it look uneven.

you might want to have a couple of drinks first. it really helps.

cut my hair w/ tape, f

i would advise against this, especially if the results of your bang-cutting are meh. if you just need a basic trim w/ no styling, go to supercuts or someplace similarly very cheap.

hmmm, sounds doable, carey.

lauren, I’m extremely lazy.

the last trim I had I went to this place near campus that advertised “$8 haircut”. I only wanted a trim so thought it was worth a shot. I walked in and an older man and woman were sitting in obv. underused chairs surrounded by piles of clutter and magazines. The woman looks up, annoyed, and says “yes?” Me, “uh can I get a haircut?” The whole thing took five minutes and I had to ask her to cut my bangs after she’d already whipped off the cape. I strongly suspected the $8 haircut was just a front for some other business.

When I started school, I had much shorter hair and it was growing out in a really bad way. Since we’d just moved here, I wasn’t ready to embark on a search for a stylist so I just decided to cut it all myself. As a result, I have a hilarious bowl cut in my student ID photo.

Oooo is there a beauty school near you? That’s a good way to get a cheap haircut.

you should just do it yourself. i hate paying for bad haircuts when i can give myself a bad haircut for free. long hair is a lot easier to cut than short hair. you should be able to find someone to cut the back for you. just carry scissors with you and go to a bar.

sam, i havent had my hair cut by a hairdresser since 1989. the way i get it straight at the bottom is to first use a straightening iron to get the hair perfectly straight then part the hair all the way down the middle to your neck (like youre about to do low pigtails). then I pull one side over my shoulder, pull the hair down flat between two fingers and do one big chop right along the bottom of my fingers when I reach the length I want. repeat for other side, making sure you chop the same length, of course. super sharp scissors required. you dont want to have to start hacking at it. \

this is all done dry too, btw, which I think is better for seeing the end results.

what’s funny is I actually know a ton of stylists. It seems all of our friends from our punk rawk days have decided to go to beauty school to help finance their drugged up weekends.

I’m just stubborn and entirely too diy.

Carey is basically OTM, with the caveat that Tom ended up with a completely shaved head after one drunken self-hair cut. But I have never ended up bald after self-hair cut even with drinks.

I really love that Carey recommends asking a drunk total stranger to cut your hair in a public place. It’s so HER, somehow. How’s India, ducks?

Heh, no, no baldspot accidents.

I think it was just because my girlfriend and I were both utterly useless at it, and she finally had enough of me looking silly. So now I get ‘real’ haircuts. It hasn’t stopped me looking silly, though. Nothing can.

I got my hair cut the other day, and I like it, but I think one side is shorter than the other. Should I 1)walk around with my head tilted to even it out or 2) ignore it until the next time I get my hair cut (approx. 2 months). My bob is now stacked. It makes a big difference. Also, I asked for short bangs but was refused on the principal that short bangs can look like a kid cut your hair.

I put it in braids, and then lop off the ends. (My hair is also down to the middle of my back—and is curly and wiry and coarse and a fucking nightmare).

Someday, you will all see pictures of it. Cousin It.

if you are going to DIY, the braid option is good. You collect enough hair in the braids to really negate the chance that you will cut too much.

I HAVE cut my hair with very disatrous results. I am still thinking about the 1999 incident—I got crazy with the scissors, and ended up looking like a drunk lesbian wannabe. Bangs AND a mullet! Do not drink and cut. Wine, scissors and a mirror do not = anything but the fun you had in the moment. You have to live with it. For a very long time.

I think maybe you should see another hairdresser if they are refusing you hairstyle on that kind of principle? Seems like they should’ve given you a better reason, like if it wouldn’t have worked with the cut or your face or something? Just saying “I REFUSE TO DO THAT BECAUSE OF AMELIE” or something is weird.

i am back from crazy crazy india, washing all the sewage and spices from my clothes as i type.

i have given random people haircuts in random places. i think it is the best way.

th only time i have been refused a haircut was when i asked them to cut my bangs into an off center point. it seemed like a good idea.

Gosh, I tried to post and I was eight posts behind!

I also did “Locks of Love” once. I’m considering it again because it’s so long.( my hair) They request a lot of locks!

Haha, that’s what Amanda said when I told her how I wanted my hair: “You mean like Amelie?” But that is not my inspiration:(

welcome back C. When I asked for above eyebrow bangs, they gave me below eyebrow bangs, when I asked for short bangs, they gave me regular above eyebrow bangs. If I ask for Ceasar bangs, perhaps I will get what I want.

I just found out my salon went up $10 per cut, so I’m all about growing my hair out now. I am too cheap / lazy to spend $60+ on a haircut. So, now I’m in the awkward shaggy curly hair that’s not sure what it wants to do. I enjoyed the Barbra Streisand curly cut from The Way We Were but now I can’t be bothered. I may be drunkenly hacking sometime soon.

I hate hairdressers too, I am antisocial and cheap and now it’s hard to stick a baby somewhere for long enough to get out. Usually I do a good job but I fucked it up recently.

carey, you were going for the danzig look?

I am pretty good at cutting my own hair, actually. I desperately went to SUPERCUTS one day after work, as I couldn’t take the shrubbery that is my hair anymore. The $11 haircut was awful. The back was cut longer that the front (NOT INTENTIONALLY) when I asked for a bob. I “stacked” my hair in the back by myself and it turned out pretty A.O.K.

I’m at a “what do i do?” stage now. Blah.

I haven’t paid for a haircut since 19...84?

It’s pretty untended. I’m a slob. I cut my bangs and used to let the rest go. Lately I’ve had my husband take an inch or so off once in a while. I don’t dye my hair or fuss with it in any way, but I don’t want to be one of those artsy-fart women with the long gray braid, the potter’s wheel and the paint-spattered Keds that this island is rotten with, either. Nor do I want to be one of those empowered menopausal crew-cut bitches. OH GOD! WHAT TO BE?????? IT’S A MINEFIELD OF WRONG IMAGE-CHOICE DISASTERS!!!!

artsy-fart women with the long gray braid, the potter’s wheel and the paint-spattered Keds

hahaha, I share your self-image angst, beth.

I just went to the bathroom and am now afraid the hair is turning into a curly mullet. Do I try to get through it or get it cut? The dilemma of hairs.

I think might be afraid of cutting curly hair. so complicated!

Actually, Sam, not at all! If it’s not straight, who can tell? It freakishly sprawls out any way it wants to no matter what. The only problem is that if cut w/o proper layers, it can look like you have a triangle-shaped head. Who wants that? Not me.

I think I’m just crabby because it’s raining here and I’m having an attack of the frizz. This could anger me enough to go at it with scissors when I get home.

re: if it’s not straight — I mean the cutting here. Not straight hair. An old man with the shakes could cut my hair and no one could tell.

Re: hairstylist refusals

on the one hand, you are the paying customer. On the other hand, you go to a stylist hoping they have some vision of what will look good (or maybe some people go just for a steadier hand than their own). Two stylist have refused to cut my wing-bang, saying I should grow it out, but I always get really impatient with it and hack away at it. Otherwise, I have been really happy with my hair in the past year.

Almost cut my hair

It happened just the other day

It was getting kind of long

I could have said it was in my way

I use one of these once every three weeks or so, set at 4 or 7 mm (depends on the mood), because (OK, it’s ridiculous, I know) my bald spot is a little less conspicuous like that.

I think maybe you should see another hairdresser if they are refusing you hairstyle on that kind of principle?

On the other hand, if the haircut you request is going to make you look (in their opinion) ridiculous, or just not suit you, then they’re not going to want you telling people you got it from them.

I cut my own fringe once and my hairdresser laughed at me. Now I get my hair cut three times a year in a fancy Aveda salon, where I pay loads of money but it looks great for four months.

But that was what I meant by “that kind of principle”—ie I am over this and refuse to do it to anyone because it looks from 1996 is not a good reason to refuse a haircut and is actually just being a prick. Discussing with the customer more flattering options or giving better reasons to refuse haircut is what a proper hairdresser would do.

anyone want to cut my hair? i want it to stand upright like the little girls in the ocado advert from a few years ago. yes, i know i’m the wrong colour. but i think it might work anyway.

I always cut my hair. Sadly I am the only person within a twenty mile radius of my home capable of cutting afro hair. And I’m not qualified.

I think that the hairdressers are afraid to give me what I want because they are afraid I won’t like it and will cry or something. Maybe I need to explain, I don’t mind looking like a geek, it is actually what I aspire to. Also, how often does what they try to do match up with what they accomplish? They should just go for it. My new cutter has cute short hair so I think I may just trust her to go really short again.

Let’s all get drunk tonight and cut each others’ hair, Emsk! I could desperately do with a trim.

We can tie Ed down and do funny things to his dreadlocks.

ACtually, I haven’t showered today due to the powercut, so maybe no one should be cutting mine hair.

Here’s what I would like

ihttp://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.S97/vj28/pictures/pageboy.gif

She came pretty close, just left the bangs too long.

Mary, it’s so cute! If only my hair were straight, I would go for that as well. I had this hair cut for a while, but now it’s growing out.

Let’s all get drunk tonight and cut each others’ hair, Emsk! I could desperately do with a trim.

We can tie Ed down and do funny things to his dreadlocks.

bollocks i didn’t see this til now! ohwell.

Considering the state we were in, and the watching of silly goth hair on teh telly, I am quite glad that we did not cut each others’ hair.

To this day, I still regret getting a home done st00ges cut by Ron Asheton on the grounds that we were “too wasted”.

Should you wash your hair before getting it (washed and) it cut? That’s what’s bugging me right now.

“long hair is a lot easier to cut than short hair”

I found the opposite true. When I had short hair I was able to cut and style it into a killer graduated bob all by myself. Now I have long hair, it’s too difficult to cut straight and have all the layers and crap. But I do actually really enjoy going to a salon, so it’s not that bad.